Lithuania’s National Cyber Security Centre (NKSC) will operate in a state of enhanced readiness during the upcoming Zapad military exercise in Belarus this autumn, with reinforced cyber forces and increased information-sharing among allies.
“Like many other institutions, we will be operating in an enhanced readiness mode,” NKSC Director Antanas Aleknavičius told LRT on Friday.
“We have already tested that many times, whether during elections, which we had quite a few last year, so we will activate a similar mechanism, monitoring the [cyber] space with our reinforced forces and exchanging information with our partners more frequently,” he added.
Although there are currently no specific indications of cyber threats linked to the exercises, Mr Aleknavičius stressed that vigilance remains essential.
The Zapad exercise, jointly organised by Belarus and Russia, is scheduled to begin in September. Lithuania’s Armed Forces have stated that the active phase of the drills is expected to last approximately a week in mid-September, although movements and related activities may occur between August and October.
Lithuania’s Chief of Defence General Raimundas Vaikšnoras has already announced that the army will step up its readiness throughout August and September in response to the exercises in the neighbouring country.
In late May, Belarus said it would scale back the drills, reducing the number of participating troops and relocating them further from its western borders. However, General Vaikšnoras has expressed scepticism, stating that the move “could be a bluff”.
The Lithuanian military noted that Belarus’s decision to cut troop numbers from 13,000 to 7,000 “can equally mean something or nothing”.
President Gitanas Nausėda has also downplayed the expected scale of this year’s exercise, suggesting it will be two or three times smaller than the previous – Zapad 2021.
That year’s iteration was among the largest joint Russian-Belarusian exercises, involving around 200,000 troops and spanning multiple training areas in both countries.
The Zapad exercises have typically been held biennially since 2009. However, no drills took place in 2023. British intelligence later attributed the cancellation to Russia’s shortage of personnel and equipment, as well as the Kremlin’s reluctance to draw criticism by staging a large-scale military show during its war in Ukraine.
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